consequences of the ill-usage it has received
during their different investigations, another of which has
recently occurred in the hope of finding M. le Vicomte d'Ache and
my daughter, as well as repeated sojourns made by order of the
prefect, and an interrogation by his secretary, after having been
subjected to an examination lasting eleven hours in this so-called
Court of Justice, in order that I might inform them of my
correspondence with M. de Ache as well as of a letter I received
from him on the 17th of last March. The worst threats have been
used such as being confronted with Le Chevalier, and my being sent
to Paris to be guillotined, but nothing terrified me, I did not
tell them anything about my relations with him or where he was
living. I had just left him ten days previously. My reply to this
persecution was that M. de Ache was in London, and I concluded by
assuring them that I did not fear death, that I would fervently
perform my last act of contrition, and that my head would fall
without my disclosing this interesting mystery.

"My liberty was promised me six weeks ago, but at the price of a
large sum of money, which is, I believe, to be divided between the
prefect and his secretary Niquet (_sic_). Half the sum is safely
under lock and key in the latter's bureau. I have been a long time
trying to collect the sum demanded, as I received little assistance
from those who called themselves my friends. My very property was
refused me with arrogant threats, for it was believed that I was to
be put to the sword. The only end I hoped to attain by my
sacrifices was to save my daughter, upon whose head a price of
6,000 francs had been set at Caen. The family Delaitre, without any
other interest in me than that which misfortune inspires have
displayed indefatigable zeal in my cause, exposing their lives to
great danger in order to remove her from Caen, where the
authorities left no stone unturned.

"Three of my servants have been cast into prison, a fourth, named
Francois Hebert, commendable for thirty-seven years' faithful
service, defended our interests, and for his honesty's sake has
been in chains since the month of July. What must he not have
suffered during the last eleven years at the hands of the
authorities, the tax receivers at H